Paying more to park

People looking to park in N lot — on Chancellor’s Circle around the Administration building — may be in for a bit of a surprise.

While parking in this area used to largely be free after 4:30 pm on weekdays and all day on weekends, visitors to the University will now have to pay a flat rate of $4 to park during these hours, according to a rate sheet affixed to the meters. Holidays will also require payment, according to the signage.

The plan will eventually see other lots around campus charge for evening and weekend parking as well.

John Danakas, the Director of Public Affairs at the University of Manitoba says that “the current plan sees selected central lots eventually charging for evening and weekend parking; however there is no plan to charge evening and weekend rates at U and Q lots.”

Danakas points out that the $4 rate is lower than the $5 evening and weekend rate charged by the parcade attached to Hellen Glass. He went on to say that the original proposal was to charge $2 per hour, but that this idea was sidelined due to concerns about people having to leave class or social events to plug a meter.

The university says that this plan will net the institution between $80-145,000 from the N lot alone, and that “parking revenues are used by the university to develop, build, maintain and upgrade all existing parking lots, equipment and parkades.

Jim Blanchard, the acting head of Elizabeth Dafoe Library, when asked about the potential impact on library patrons, said: “People who parked in front of the library after hours or on weekends will not be happy and we have had a couple of complaints from people just wanting to run in and drop off books. But people will get used to it.”

Alex Yuzwa, one of the Manitoban’s twitter followers, said that she was “really disappointed” by the university’s decision to charge for evening parking in N lot. “It is going to deter students from evening studying.”